The Daily Mail

The publishing market continues to see dramatic changes as digital becomes the norm and print begins to wane.

As a result, many have started selling their products over the internet as well as in traditional formats, but they also need a platform and the right infrastructure in order to remain competitive.

This presented an opportunity to dmg media, the company behind the popular UK-based newspapers The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. The firm already operates MailOnline, the world’s most read newspaper website, and was looking to launch a service across all major tablets.

Developed as a complementary service to the printed version of the Daily Mail, Mail Plus is designed exclusively for tablets and provides an interactive digital re-imagination of the print newspaper for their loyal readership.

Mail Plus required two production processes, one for Apple’s iPad and a separate method for the Android-based products found on Google devices and the popular e-reader; Kindle Fire.

Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) has created a foundation for media firms to get their services out to a growing digital audience in order to boost their readership and range of products.

DPS enables media organisations to create an engaging newspaper or magazine for their readers in a visually exciting and easy-to-read digital format that enables an array of interactive features and content exclusive to the app such as additional pictures, videos and interactive puzzles.

MPP Global has developed the most advanced CRM and eCommerce platform in the market. eSuite is the market leading cloud CRM and eCommerce platform designed for the media and entertainment industry to power paid content strategies.

Neil Johnson, Managing Director of Mobile and TV at dmg media, explained: “One of the reasons we went with MPP Global and Adobe is because they enable us to create and monetise digital with ease.”

Once dmg media had selected Adobe to create its digital newspaper and MPP Global to manage users and monetisation, they were secure in the knowledge that they had selected world class vendors for this mission critical project. MPP Global provide dmg media with the ability to create both a pay-as-you-go (single edition) and subscription-based product that can be sold through a plethora of app stores, including Apple’s iTunes.

Together MPP Global and Adobe have worked collaboratively to integrate their payments and publishing technology into the fully branded website www.dailymailplus.co.uk.

The payment and registration channel is hosted in MPP Global’s PCI compliant data centre. Consumers are given the choice of numerous payment methods, including direct debit, credit card and PayPal and payment details are stored by MPP Global to enable repeat and recurring payments to be carried out. dmg media is able to report on revenues and sophisticated analytics by having complete visibility of all orders, even those taken via iTunes payment accounts. Every order is imported into the MPP Global system and is actionable in MPP Global’s back office management tool, eSuite HQ. Customers are able to self-manage their subscriptions, view order history, upgrade and downgrade between different bundles of Mail Plus products as well as log customer enquiries.

MPP Global’s API library enables dmg media to offer single sign-on, confidently check entitlements across any device, link payment accounts for recurring subscriptions, offer gift subscriptions and accept single edition sales. eSuite also enables dmg media to customise entitlement rules using the direct entitlement, available in Adobe DPS. This validates whether or not the user has paid for that particular product or service and if they have then they are given access immediately.

When a customer purchases the Mail Plus app through the iTunes store they are prompted to share their personal details with dmg media. This information is collected by the application, transmitted to MPP Global through a direct integration and then stored centrally and securely within the MPP Global database.

Similarly, when a user subscribes to Mail Plus on the website a record is created in the same MPP Global database. This ensures a single view of all user activity across all formats and offers full customer data visibility to generate tailored offers and in turn increase average revenue per user.

“We set out creating a direct subscription website, using MPP Global and Adobe as the power engine behind CRM digital publishing and monetisation. We had something deployed to the market quickly, within approximately three months, from the beginning of the relationship. To date we are delighted with the results and the project as a whole. We hope to have a long and fruitful partnership with MPP Global.”

Neil JohnsonManaging Director, dmg media

Project Goals

Drive Engagement on Web & Mobile

Centralisation of customer data is at the heart of the business. The implication of becoming more reliant on subscribers and subscriber revenues is that there will be a need to sustain those relationships and subscriptions as long as possible. MPP Global provides new metrics such as ARPU (average revenue per user) and Total Customer Value which enables our clients to report and measure their success.

Detailed Revenue Analytics

dmg media’s focus on audience data utilises MPP Global's sophisticated revenue analytics and Adobe’s behavioural and targeting analytics. Using this technology dmg media learns 50 billion things about 43 million people over ten days so by leveraging this data across the group, dmg media is able to share real time information with other businesses to help serve customers better and find new ones.

Monetise Content Across Platforms

MPP Global has developed the Mail-branded subscription and billing channel which operates separately but in parallel to Apple iTunes, Amazon Kindle and Android, enabling dmg media to easily monetise its digital content across multiple platforms.

Promote & Tailor Offers

By interpreting customer information and devising an incentive that is specific to the user, or a group of users who hit certain criteria’s, publishers can actively promote the direct payment channel with highly tailored offers and in turn increase average revenue per user.

Conclusion

According to the most recent ABC newspaper rankings, The Daily Mail online products attracted 126 million unique users in January this year - that's more than twice the population of the UK and MailOnline received nine million unique users on one day in January alone.

dmg media expects digital revenue to exceed print advertising revenue by 2015 and understanding consumers at this level of rich data is critical to their future. Digital newspaper revenues are very close to outstripping the newspaper print ad decline. In the near future, the publishing sector is going to start to see digital clear water as it overtakes print.

The Client Said

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We are pleased to be working with experts in the field of monetising digital content. MPP Global’s innovative and flexible CRM and eCommerce platform enables dmg media to power the next generation of customer experience and react quickly to market changes.